The Marussia tangle was Chilton’s fault but I wouldn’t bash his head in for that one. Losing the rear there on cold tires isn’t necessarly a rare mistake. It was the kind of honest mistake that usually ends up in a spin and nothing more. Bad timing this time, I guess.

Agreed… but he was positioning due to VET being slower in the corner ahead of him and MAS was positioning for a gap on the inside… so yes he caused it but it was legit racing incident… hopefully no action by the stewards and hopefully both ok.

I think that sums it up. Massa took a big risk given the erratic braking that had been going on. Still, that’s why they’re racing I guess, to take those risks. Just hope he’s OK, presumably the medics want to be cautious given his past head injury.

It looked as though perez braked earlier than expected (probably due to his failing breaks) and also at the same time moved very slightly to the left. I see it as technically the fault of perez but possibly not much either driver could do about it. I think it would be harsh to punish either of them.

Not really, the track has a right hand corner there in case you haven’t noticed :P However Perez just went straight there which I find odd, though if his brakes were almost gone I suppose he had to brake so early he just couldn’t go with the track. And Massa needed to follow the corner to be able to take the next turn in a decent way.

There is also an argument for the “incident pit” here. Massa fluffed earlier overtaking opportunities, and then lost rhythm behind Perez. If he’d been more proactive, and not made errors earlier, he would’t have been in this situation later in the race.

Perez does these sorts of things, perhaps not as often as he did when he was at McLaren, however mistakes like this one are something he is known for. I am no Massa fan, however, I was looking forward to seeing Massa get some points for Williams and ahead of Alonso. Alas deprived of the ‘Felipe is faster than you’ story…

What I was surprised at was the lack of ‘are they okay?’ feeling from everyone seen on the podium and in the commentary box. I found the incident to be quite shocking and F1 drivers are paid a bit more than Grand National horses. There should be some respectful sombre-ness to the podium ceremony after such an incident in the closing laps.

The very first thing that was said in the ceremony was that they were, indeed, okay. I gather that Ricciardo already knew this from his first radio communication after winning the race, before any celebrations. I think it’s a bit unfair to criticise.

I don’t know. The way I see it, it si the edge of the corner what makes it look like perez moves to the side. Also I would say that as an overtaking move it was a poor attempt by Massa, whose trajectory was too close to perez’s. But, i don’t know….

I think it was Massa’s fault – his car was oddly positioned – Perez was already on the earliest possible apex to defend the position and that’s why Massa tried to move to the right because going in on an even earlier one wouldn’t be possible. He was just too eager.

Agreed it was Massa’s fault. He tried to slot in behind Perez but misjudged it. Perez did move unexpectedly to the left, admittedly, but only a small amount.

Apparently Perez braked 5m earlier than usual, which caused Massa to misjudge his move. But Massa can SEE where Perez is. He has to react to what Perez is actually doing, not to what Perez might have done in the past.

Big deceleration with both cars when they collided with the barriers, but it is a testament to the vastly improved safety of the cars that the survival cells stayed completely intact and both drivers seem fine.

So true. But the body & internal organs just aren’t built to be thrown around like that, Allen Simonsen (RIP) proved that at Le Mans a couple of years ago. Internal bleeding & injuries can hide themselves very well. As brilliant as safety is & it is a true testament to modern engineering, I’m just not sure how they can improve crash structures to accommodate those kind of vulnerabilities of the human body, hence sending Massa for further medical checks.

I thought they were both racing incidents. Massa was making an overtake against a car with bad brakes. The braking zone there isn’t exactly a straight line. Lots of reasons why it could go wrong, and neither left a wide enough margin for error.

The Chilton/Bianchi incident was clearly Max’s fault, but I would say he wasn’t driving unreasonably or with unnecessary risk. Crashes happen, sometimes through no fault of your own. Quiet word from the Charlie should be all that’s required for all these. (My opinion only, of course).

Anyone else think though that we get more obvious infractions at the (arguably) safer, more modern tracks?

I was relieved to see them both getting out unaided – it was a big, sudden stop – but better than the secondary impacts, possible fractures and so on that used to come with concrete walls. I can remember a few crashes at that corner, but not at such high speed.
2 weeks till the next race but I guess concussion could still be an issue, so it could be an exciting wait for Juncadella and Deputy Felipe.

Now I changed my mind: it was all Perez’s fault. Yes, he had troubles with brakes, but you are not allowed to change braking direction/trajectory if you have someone near you. The same mistake Hamilton did with Kobayashi in Spa-2011 if I remember correctly. You must look into mirrors and think twice after before you make any manoeuvres.
These so called ‘racers’ don’t understand that they are not alone on the race track. Shame and disgrace.
Sorry for Felipe.

“These so called ‘racers’ don’t understand that they are not alone on the race track. Shame and disgrace.” WHAT… ??? They’re amongst the best race car drivers in the world today. As to understanding they’re “not alone”, how can there be a race if only one driver is on track? Accidents happen, it’s an intrinsic part of any competitive sport, and being competitive is part of human nature.

massa fan are supporting massage on the move, Sergio fans are supporting Sergio, what I feel is like massage was behind, he moved a bit on the right, even when he had a lot of space to overtake him on left, he could have saved himself from the crash, he was too impatient, he could have made move on him on th long straight with drs at the end of the lap, I felt Perez slowed a bit because of his breaking issues so he was trying to keep distance from better in front at the left corner

But the thing is Massa couldn’t really use that space on the left because that would ruin the following corner for him completely. He was going for it and he held his line pretty much in the corner, while Perez cut across the corner.